Lena Dunham has been called a lot of things. Same with her breakthrough hit HBO series. Liz Cantor adds some more things to both lists.

It’s only happened to me once before and that was with Entourage. It was long before Entourage was a household name, or even on television in Australia. I was living with a TV producer in Sydney and he received a box set of a new American HBO series in the post. He palmed it off to me and asked me to let him know what I thought.

After the first episode credits rolled, I had to immediately watch another episode… and before I knew it, I had watched the whole of season one that night! Those that know me will confirm that this is extraordinary, as I am not one to sit still for long periods of time.

There are a few shows on air at the moment that I look forward to: Spooks, Downton Abbey, Revenge, Homeland, Packed to the Rafters and Sunday Night. But put it this way…. if it’s a choice between dinner with friends or staying home to watch the show. I’m happy to record them.

Lately I’ve been in a relationship with novels and was speaking to my makeup artist at work about my latest read when the subject changed to TV series. I mentioned to her that it had been a while since I stumbled across a series that ‘I couldn’t put down’. She rattled off a few she had enjoyed and I promised to give them a chance.

Enter into my life Girls, another HBO series and the second time I have watched a whole season in one night! I literally HAD to keep watching.

Ok men before the title puts you off, let me throw forth a few of the things you’ll be missing: sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, life changing mistakes, experimentation. Seen it before? Not like this you haven’t. Trust me.

Girls reflects a part of the population not portrayed before. Anyone between 21 to 35 may find a mirror reflection of themselves or at least a character that they can whole heartily relate to.

Sex and the city was New York women figuring out work, friends, love and the challenges of family life. Gossip Girl was teens navigating school, friends, love and the Upper East Side. Girls fills the whole space in between, with the rawness of Brooklyn as a setting.

Hannah Horvath is so very refreshing as the leading lady of the show. A woman who behaves in unlikable ways at times—is incredibly heartening. It upends a lot of conventional thinking that the television industry takes as a given. These days we’re so used to seeing our Blair Waldorf and Serena’s that it actually made me feel slightly uneasy during Hannah’s first love scene that I was looking at a flat chested girl with plenty of cellulite. Hello real world. Hannah is an inspiration, and although I wish she’d just ‘stop talking’ at times, the way she stands body proud of every lump and bump only adds to her beauty.

James Poniewozik from Time reserved high praise for the series, calling it “raw, audacious, nuanced and richly, often excruciatingly funny.” Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter called Girls “one of the most original, spot-on, no-missed-steps series in recent memory.”

I couldn’t agree more. The series conveys real female friendships, the angst of emerging adulthood, fallible relationships, sexuality, self-esteem, body image, intimacy, a tech-savvy social media world that promotes distance, surviving on very little money in a ‘now generation’, the modern parenting of entitled children, among many other things—all laced together with deep felt belly laughs and poignancy.

If you take away nothing else you’ll consider by the end of Season one, that there should be no regrets in life, only lessons.

Liz Cantor

In 2012 she became an ambassador for Suzuki and stars in their ‘way of life’ TVC’s and campaigns. She is also a spokesperson and ambassador for Hilton Hotels and the face of the Michael J Fox foundation ‘Shake it Up’ raising funds for a cure for Parkinson’s disease. She regularly takes pity on Steve Molk and talks to him at television events.